Green Point in Victoria, Australia forms part of Moet and Chandon’s vast worldwide empire (which includes Veuve Clicquot, Dom Perignon, etc) and it seems that this remote outpost has been given the freedom by their overlords in France to experiment and innovate in a way that would normally be taboo in the heartlands of Champagne.

Last weekend, whilst browsing the shelves in my local Oddbins, I came across a bottle of Green Point Rose 2002. Two things struck me. Firstly, that being only 4 years old, the wine was young for a top end sparkler and, secondly, the bottle was sealed with a crown cap. You know, exactly the same closure used on beer bottles. I had a double take!

The wine cost £13.99 and was utterly delicious.

It would appear that Green Point have also had to deal with balancing the issue of product quality vs. cork aesthetics. Some might argue that flipping a crown cap doesn’t quite carry with it the romance of popping a Champagne cork, but if the cap results in a better quality, isn’t that what’s most importatnt?

The interesting thing here is that one of the most traditional wine products in the world has made a statement about freshness being critical to quality. They are effectively saying ” We are going to sell our champagne young and seal it with a cap to keep it fresh”. If they want to be really daring, we’d like offer them the opportunity to use our freshness indicator.